Schwinn Continental Derailleur Replacements

[FrenchLop]

I've recently bought a women's Schwinn Continental at a garage sale. We think it's a 1975, but we aren't sure. Anyway, I'd like to get a totally different rear (and possibly front) derailleur for it because no matter what we do, it doesn't like to switch into all of the gears. We read that the original derailleurs on the bike don't really work well with it, so we were looking at maybe a Suntour or Shimano, but we have no idea were to start or anything. Could some one give us some information that could help? Thanks in advance.

[cny-man]

The original rear derailleur is a very old design, but worked OK for hundreds of thousands of riders. Nevertheless a modern derailleur will work better.

Most any derailleur will work, especially if the largest rear cog is no more than 28 teeth. You will need to buy a "claw" type derailleur. There are several Shimano Tourney derailleurs that would work. Example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/231318776293?lpid=82

[FrenchLop]

Thank you so much!! This helps a lot!!!

[nfmisso]

Personal choice; I like this one better: http://www.amazon.com/Shimano-Tourney-TX55-Speed-Derailleur/dp/B003ZMBNG0/ref=sr_1_7?s=cycling&ie=UTF8&qid=1409546317&sr=1-7

[cny-man]

I don't have personal experience with any recent recent derailleur, so take Nigel's suggestion. That's why I only gave an example.

[nfmisso]

Thank you

I have a TX51; the predecessor to the TX55 on my World Tourist; and have installed TX55 RDs on a couple of other bikes. They are reliable, rugged, smooth shifting and low cost. Higher cost gets you a bit smoother shifting (very hard to tell the difference), a bit lower weight - with the resulting loss in ruggedness. They are rated for 7 or less cogs in back, but have plenty of travel to handle 8.

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In addition; make sure you replace the cables and cable housings; both derailleur and brakes.

[cny-man]

Be aware that shift housing on the Continental has a very small diameter. If I remember correctly you can still use standard (non-index) shift housing but may have to peel off the outer convering at the ends of each section to fit into the cable stops.